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Module 5 Roundup

Overall Thoughts:

So this was the final module. As we had failed the last one, my group and I worked hard to make sure our info-graphic reflected the key points about the auto-industry. We worked well together and though I didn't manage to make all the hangouts I think we were able to gather the right data and make the right insights, polishing the nuggets we've found for a brilliant info-graphic. We felt that our final result was great, though at this point we're still waiting to hear back about any final results.

The Ethical debate question was a bit weird and we didn't fully understand what we were meant to be fighting for/against, but eventually we cleared it up.

It was good to have key lectures on what we can and can't do in the digital age, especially as brands can now interact with customers in an intimate setting, it's good to have boundaries and to keep addressing these.

Key Lecture: Revisiting WebOptimisation

I liked this lecture, and how it took some of our groups work from the previous module and applied it to the site, showing us the insights that worked and really hit home. This was a great opportunity for me to see how to sharpen my skills for the data analysis I do during my day to day job.

Key Talk: Shuvo Saha - 

I loved Shuvo's talk, his talk about the how marketing needs to be different for the digital age has really helped me think about how to get my clients up and running, changing to stay with the times. Rebooting the organisation is such a key point!

Key Takeaway: Squared has been good, been key to explore how it all ties together and the future of marketing, been great to hear from inspirational leaders and talks on the subjects I'd not thought relevant. I've met key people that have been a pleasure to work with, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who wants to start out in digital marketing.

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Module 4 Roundup

Overall Thoughts:

This was a new part of the course I'd not seen before, uncharted territory for me, however as It's analytics, a core part of my job, I thought I'd be fine. Having a new group was also a challenge as I lost momentum that I'd had with my previous group. Though we worked hard to try to complete the assignment, failing it wasn't a great experience to be had. It stems from not taking responsibility to check over the work to make sure we didn't contradict ourselves and getting cocky with thinking that I knew it so it should have been easy. I learnt the humbling lesson from it and I've decided to try to help my group more in terms of working on the next assignment.

The content on Analytics was a lot of what I already knew, thought some elements of the multi-channel reporting were not what i'd seen before. This was the area I felt I learnt the most from.

Key Lecture: Beautiful Data

I'm a big fan of data, using spreadsheets on a day to day basis. I also love story-telling, so being able to marry the two together is great. Though I'm not the biggest fan of info-graphics, a lot of the content was helpful in forming my thinking of how i present information back to clients.

Key Talk: Simon Rodgers - Beautiful Data

Simon's talk on open data was great, with one of my key points to take away was though that there's lots of it out there, we need to be able to communicate it and get the real nuggets and insights out of it. Revealing the data behind the stories is key and it's great to see difficult and hard data being translated into bite-size and better chunks. Seeing this work in the journalism world is encouraging and inspiring to me in advertising.

Key Takeaway: Data is important and ensuring we interpret it correctly and clearly is key. Interpretation is half the battle and we should be able to communicate it clearly and factually, getting the nuggets that clients and customers need to know. Also, not to get cocky.

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Module 3 Roundup

Overall Thoughts:

Module 3 was the last module I did last time round, so this was where my previous experience started to run out. The assignment did at first seem a little daunting to my group, with a lot of them not really knowing a great deal about the interplaying of different touch-points and how multiple channels can contribute to the whole of a purchase journey. That said they picked up the information quick and we were able to put together a marketing plan for the assignment that kicked ass. 

This module has to be my favourite of the course, with the lecture and the video content complimenting what I do on a day to day basis. Though I work mainly with organic search, garnering an understanding of how paid interlinks within the purchase journey has helped me within my career, allowing me to talk confidently about the interplay between the two channels.

The one sad point is that this is the last module that I'm able to work on with my first group. We plan to meet up in London and catch up next week, which should be fun! 

Key Lecture: Video Marketing

Despite paid being a really interesting area with its tie ins to organic search, The Video Marketing lecture was my favourite for this module. Story telling is such a compelling way for brands to get their ideas across, and with the advent of shareable video content, what a better way to tell stories! Sometimes our clients at work ask us about video content, so being able to point them in the right direction in terms of strategy has been great.

Key Talk: John Hogarty

John talked about creativity and about how technology is all about how we use it. This is key for my job role, as technology is continuing to develop, so if we're able to tell stories for brands in new ways, we're able to engage with customers with an unforgettable experience. 

Key Takeaway - Multi-channel marketing is here, with new ways of reaching users being dreamed up and added every day, it's key for us to keep on top and ensure we're reaching them on platforms and in ways that will have maximum impact. The second takeaway is that i'm going to miss my first group.  

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Module 2 Roundup

Overall thoughts:

Going into module two again was a good experience overall. Working with my team was great, as they were all keen and enthusiastic and brought different elements of digital experience with them. The key difference this time was that with a smaller team, everyone carried their own weight. Having done the assignment before I was able to guide thinking and help us illustrate points in a clearer way. 

Commercial thinking isn't something I'm that experienced at as part of a job, so when I was assigned to work on the numbers, I took my time and worked with someone who was experienced to help us chart realistic revenue figures and targets.

Key Lecture: Mobile consumer

Going through the lectures again, it was good to re look at the Mobile consumer slides. Part of my Job is to analyse how sources of organic traffic for websites, and for the patterns I see on a day to day basis being reflected in the course content is encouraging. This slide has also equipped me with the background stats and knowledge to fight for mobile optimisation of clients sites, giving gravitas to recommendations that will ultimately help users.

Key Talk: Jo Baker - Fall in love with Mobile

Jo-Bakers talk on mobile also armed me with key stats to back up my mobile recommendations at work and allowed me to really see not just the how mobile sites should work, but also the what and the why. Being able to understand why users engage with mobile content and what they'll engage with has been a real eye opener.

Key takeaways: Mobile is here to stay, key for business as technology is moving to a place of high integration within our lives. Apps may be a walled garden, but they can be well integrated into a product or service that can have a huge impact on consumers lives.

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Module 1 Roundup

Initial Thoughts:

It was cool to do module one again. Though I didn't have to redo the video and I only had to do a slide in terms of assignment, it was a good level of work to ease back into the course and re-familiarise myself with the course content. The new layout of the course material was novel too, with this style much preferable to the old style.

Key Talk: Neil Perkins

The Neil Perkins talk on change was particularly inspiring during this module. Working with different businesses can be tricky. It's easy to see how some organizations struggle to stay agile and are unable to keep up with the changing pace of technology and encouraging to see ways that this can be changed.

Key Lecture: Lecture 5 - Social Purpose

The lectures were also good again, with the social purpose lecture really capturing my imagination this time round. I think having worked a little longer in the industry I can really start to see how much of an impact that social has and doesn't have when integrated within a digital strategy. It's definitely something I take with me when I'm thinking about a clients digital strategy and how social ties in overall.

Key Learning from Module 1:

The key learning from module one, was not to underestimate the impact social has on business and to consider it when looking at strategy.

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Starting up Squared again!

Last Year I started the Google Squared course, but due to workloads and other reasons I had to put it on hold. Now they've allowed me to start again and so i'll be blogging about my experiences on here!

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Google won search by providing the best organic results users had ever seen. Ever since then, organic has been fading from the SERPS, losing ground to revenue generating Google products.

13%

That’s the amount of real estate given to true organic results in a search for “auto mechanic" when...

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Here's my video intro to the course as well. For your viewing pleasure!

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One of my favourite things about tumblr is the rampant use of gifs. Here's one of me doing my karate dance.

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Pre-Squared Reading II

So the last part of the reading was some definitions of marketing and think about how they relate to digital.

Most of them were average/descriptive and not helpful. I figure that the point of giving a bunch was for us to think about it. In order to come up with a good definition, I've thrown a few more into the mix and pulled out the ones that were good.

This is the quote from Peter F. Drucker, (The Practice of Management, 1954) that was mentioned:

"Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise"

It's a good place to start, showing the responsibly of a brand/company isn't just for one department, but it's meant to be integrated. The other key point is that he outlines customers viewing the whole business and understanding their point of view. This is key because he's pointing it out  in the decade before CSR came to prominence. The distinction between sales is important, and I discovered a quote from a random marketing book which sums this up:

"Selling means moving the products while marketing means obtaining the customer"

Marketing is much more than selling, as if you're marketing your company right you're winning repeat customers and brand ambassadors. The other quote that I liked is from Paul Mazur:

"Marketing is the delivery of a standard of living."

This is brilliant. It reminds me of a Don Draper quote from Madmen:

"Advertising is based on one thing, happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay."

I think "delivering a standard of living" and (without throwing up), "happiness", is tapping into what we can really do as marketeers.

Digital Marketing

The advent of the digital age has given brands a multitude of new ways that they can communicate with their customers. Do we treat these avenues as separate?

I believe the answer lies in what Drucker talks about in terms of integration with the business. Most companies are actively engaging with the internet, but it's only just coming of age and it's in no way finished.

So should digital marketing be separate? Should it require a different definition? In a future where everything is going to be digital, marketing will include digital by default.

That said, we're not there yet, so here's a start at a digital marketing definition:

The process of engaging with your customers through an on-line medium, in order to generate brand awareness and cultivate consumer loyalty.

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Pre-Squared Reading

As part of the Google Squared course I'm doing, we've been asked to read some blogs and material before we start. I thought I'd review some of it here:

Avinash Kaushik's Blog:

I first hear of Avinash when I started to get into digital marketing. I skimmed through one of his books in a coffee shop once, but It didn't really stick as what I was doing at the time wasn't analytically focused. I also used two of his books to make my monitors the right height when I started out doing SEO (Sorry Avinash, I'm just tall and you write a lot.)

18 months on, being referred back to his blog has been awesome. His blog post on KPI's has been great. Every month I generate reports for some of our clients, and this kind of advice is going to help me generate better insights:

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/insights-web-analytics-kpi-measurement-techniques/

I'm adding Avinash to my weekly reading and making my way though some of those books we've got in the office!

Brian Solis' Blog:

I'd not heard of Brian Solis before, but after a quick search he's notable enough to have a Wikipedia page, so I probably should have. Immediately I like him, he shares the same disdain that I have for the overuse of the word "Social". From the link at the end:

"Again, the best advice I can give you is to stop talking about social media as a means to an end and start thinking about how social media becomes a means toward triggering meaningful activities or outcomes that align with business priorities or objectives and customer expectations."

He's right on the money here. I was at a small business seminar on the weekend and during a Q&A session, someone asked whether or not they should be investing in social media. The answer contained examples of how some companies had poured money into it with no return and how others were scared to go near it, but it rounded off with the right notion: Make sure it's part of your business objectives. Far to many companies are pouring money into social because their competitors are, with no objective for why and what it's going to achieve.

Anyway, after reading his blog I might try and hunt down one of his books and here's the link:

http://www.briansolis.com/2013/05/brands-are-still-broadcasting/

I'll cover the course material in a separate post because I've got something I need to say on that one.

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I'm A Square Peg In A Square Hole

Oooh.. A blog. It's about time I started one of these.

The Square Hole

I'm doing it for the new Google Squared marketing course i'm taking, which starts next week! I'm excited and privileged to be on the first batch of new "squares", pioneering the online version of a very successful marketing souse.

When they first started advertising the course, it was just a holding page where you could put your email and register interest. Like the inquisitive guy I am, I popped my gmail in and waited. A few months later I got a call, asking me to review some course material. I jumped at the opportunity and after a great phone call with the admissions team, they offered me and a few others at Propellernet the opportunity to go on the course. So here we are.

I'm keen to find out what Google thinks about Search Engine Optimisation and what the future holds.

The Square Peg

As for me? I'm James, I work for Propellernet (The best small business to work in UK - Link). I graduated from Brighton University last year and I've been working for this amazing digital marketing agency ever since. I love stories, superheroes, zombies, movies and real ale. 

Follow this link for the awesome story on how I got a job there: http://www.propellernet.co.uk/who-we-are/james-miller

You'll find me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jdfmiller) & Medium (https://medium.com/@JdfMiller), where i've just started blogging.